Outline

Introduction: This prospective study was to compare the accuracy rate between remote smartphone photographic assessments and in-person examinations for free flaps’ monitoring.

Materials and methods: One hundred and three consecutive free flaps were monitored with in-person examinations and assessed remotely by three surgeons (Team A) via photographs transmitted over smartphone. The other four surgeons used the traditional in-personexaminations as Team B. The response time to re-exploration was defined as the interval between when a flap was evaluated as compromised by the nurse/house officer and when the decision was made for re-exploration.

Results: The accuracy rate was 98.7% and 94.2% in inperson and smartphone photographic assessments, respectively. The response time of 8 6 3 min in Team A was statistically shorter than the 180 6 104 min in Team B (P 5 0.01 by the Mann–Whitney test).

Conclusions: The remote smartphone photography assessment has a comparable accuracy rate and shorter response time compared with in-person examination for free flap monitoring